Gina Rowlands, star of The Memory Diary, dies
15 August 2024 15:32
American actress Gina Rowlands, known for her roles in the films The Diary of a Witch and The Other Woman, has died at the age of 94. This is reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to the BBC.
The Hollywood star was 94 years old. The celebrity passed away at her home in Indian Wells, California, where she was surrounded by family.
The cause of death was not announced, but the retired actress was struggling with Alzheimer’s disease.
Rowlands retired from acting in 2015 after winning four Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, and two Oscar nominations, Deadline reports . She also received an honorary Oscar in 2015.
The actress was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for her work in the films A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980). She starred in them with her husband John Cassavetes.
“A Woman Under the Influence was created by Rowlands, who wanted to delve into the difficulties faced by American women in their lives and relationships. When the Cassavetes couldn’t raise the money for the film, they mortgaged their house and borrowed from family and friends. They filmed with a crew that was partly made up of AFI students, and not on an expensive, purpose-built soundstage.
“We shot half of our films at home,” Rowlands recalled in 1997.
One of her most memorable roles is Ellie Hamilton in the film The Memory Diary, which was released exactly 20 years ago. Her character suffered from dementia and lived in a nursing home where a man took care of her. Every day, he would read Ella’s diary, which recorded their love story.
Her son, director and actor Nick Cassavetes, first spoke about his mother’s illness in June 2024, noting that the fate of the actress tragically coincided with the fate of her character from The Diary of a Witch.
“I invited my mum to play the older Ellie and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimer’s and wanting to be real with her, and now, for the last five years, she’s had Alzheimer’s. She’s in a state of complete dementia. And it’s so crazy – we’ve lived it, she’s played it, and now it’s up to us,” he told Entertainment Weekly.
